


You Can Never Go Home Again

by sarcastic_fi



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - BDSM, Dom/sub, F/M, Light BDSM, Light Masochism, Light Sadism, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-23
Updated: 2012-12-23
Packaged: 2017-11-22 04:36:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 14,962
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/605884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sarcastic_fi/pseuds/sarcastic_fi
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for teenwolf_bb (Teen Wolf Big Bang).</p><p>Stiles left Beacon Hills assuming that his bonded mate didn't want him. Now it's three years later and he's finishing college when Derek turns up to take him home, only Danny refuses to watch his submissive room mate be pulled around by someone he didn't even know exists and decides to come with him to Beacon Hills, where there are werewolves, serial killers, mate bonds and Jackson.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Can Never Go Home Again

**Author's Note:**

> AU based on Xanthe's BDSM universe. Please check out her fanfiction if you love or even like BDSM fanfiction, she is amazing!
> 
> Art link here: Art by Valress, it's a wonderful fanmix. Please stream here ( http://8tracks.com/valress/you-can-t-go-home-again) or download here ( http://www.mediafire.com/?qw54nrv8rqr9ht3).

Danny froze at the sight of his room mate of three years being held up against a wall by an unfamiliar Dominant in their dorm room. The Dom was taller than Stiles with dark hair and the kind of body that made other Dominants pull their collared Submissives close while all the single Subs swooned with longing. He was also notably older than both Stiles and Danny, who were in their early twenties. This guy was probably closer to thirty, and he was still hotter than all of the population of the campus (students or staff). It was so completely shocking that a Dominant would even be in the room with Stiles alone because Stiles didn't talk to Doms, let alone invite super hot ones into his room and allow them to manhandle him. Although, to Danny's untrained eye it didn't look much like Stiles was allowing anything.

The pair finally noticed Danny's entrance and the Dominant released his hold on Stiles which sent the Submissive to the floor. He immediately began picking up a pile of clothes that were scattered on the ground around him and throwing them into an open suitcase that was on his bed. His room mate seemed to be deliberately avoiding his gaze and Danny didn't think that the blush on his face was a good thing.

“What's going on here, Stiles? And who the Hell is he?” Danny asked, talking solely to his room mate and ignoring the glowering Dominant, knowing that was one of the things that generally pissed Doms off.

“Stiles?” The stranger growled out incredulously, as if the word was unfamiliar to him.

Stiles flushed as he gathered up a collection of obscure texts, the ones that he never let Danny borrow, from under his bed and put them into a box. “It's my nickname,” he said defensively. Danny was definitely confused. He had met Stiles at orientation when the boy had introduced himself as 'Stiles Stilinski', a name which Danny considered cruel to the point of child abuse but hadn't commented on it.

A dark eye brown arched in disbelief on the strange man's face. “What's wrong with your real name?” He asked pointedly.

“Seriously? Did you want me to be ostracised on my first day of college? No, don't answer that question,” Stiles said and rolled his eyes at the hint of a grin on the stranger's face. The banter between the two seemed organic and easy but there was still tension in the room and Danny didn't think he was the cause of it.

“Hey, wait. I know you,” Danny announced, surprising both his room mate and the Dominant. He turned accusingly to face the stranger. “You're the one who broke into our dorm the first week of college!” 

“He did?” Stiles said, clearly shocked but not unhappy at the revelation.

The stranger actually smirked, as if he was proud of his ability to subtly stalk Stiles. “You didn't think I'd let you go here without announcing that you still have our protection, that you're still mine,” he added possessively and Danny had the feeling he should leave them alone, except he was uncomfortable with this man's easy dominance of Stiles and still no one had explained to him what he had walked in on let alone who this man was. 

“Oh,” Stiles was quietly pleased but he wished he could hide it better. There was so much more to this story than Danny was able to understand from the looks and words being exchanged. One thing was clear, there was a deep connection between these two people, but Danny wasn't sure that was a good thing.

Stiles was a surprisingly private person considering how much he talked and shared. He was more than willing to offer up personal information like how often he masturbated or what kinks he thought he had, but when it came to talking about his home or childhood there really wasn't much that Danny knew. Stiles had revealed that his dad was the Sheriff of a small Californian town called Beacon Hills and that he worried about him, especially since his job was so dangerous. Stiles had never mentioned a mother, but from the sad look on Stiles' face when Danny's mother visited, he believed that she was most likely dead and had been for some time before he met Stiles. Danny knew very little else, a mention of a best friend 'Scott' and the first person he'd crushed on 'Lydia' but no details and he'd certainly never met them. In fact, Stiles had had almost no contact with anyone from his past in the last three years. 

“Stiles, can you please tell me what's going on here? Now?” Danny demanded, trying to insert enough authority to attract Stiles' attention away from the enigmatic stranger.

Stiles' dark eyes darted from the stranger to Danny and back again before he answered. “Derek, this is Danny Mahealani my roommate. Danny, this is Derek Hale. My... my Dominant,” Stiles's voice cracked on the last word, his skin flushing and his eyes seeking refuge by staring at the carpet in front of him. Derek's hand came to rest on Stiles' shoulder possessively as he glared in Danny's direction.

Danny was stunned. He knew Stiles was a Submissive, the boy had told him before they'd even moved in together just in case it changed his mind about living with Stiles. However, the idea of Stiles dating was almost laughable. He'd never seen a Sub more oblivious to the attention of Dominants, so how on earth did this one, who was smoking hot and so overtly dominant, come to gain Stiles' trust enough that he didn't even find it threatening that Derek had broken into their home! And yes, Danny was still having trouble coming to terms with the latter fact.

“Since when?” Danny asked in a dangerous tone that was close enough to challenging that Derek's eyes flashed at him and Danny saw the grip he had on Stiles tighten.

“Officially?” Stiles asked, clearly stalling since there was no other option. “Since I was fourteen... we, um, do things differently in Beacon Hills.”

“And by differently to mean illegally? Isn't your dad the Sheriff?” Danny said flatly. This conversation really wasn't making him feel any better about the situation. Courtship laws allowed dominants to court submissives as young as fourteen but only when the age gap was less than four years and there was no sexual contact, which is some states meant that a chaperone was present at every interactions between dominant and submissive until the age of eighteen. In California the law decreed that no submissive could be claimed or collared until they were eighteen years old. There were no exceptions to that law. It was there to protect young and impressionable submissives from accepting a collar from the first dom who showed them any attention, as well as from far more unsavoury connotations of collarings. 

“Well we never had sex or anything illegal, we're just really... um... conservative? It's like an arranged marriage, with out the parental influence and consent issues,” Stiles tried to explain.

Derek rolled his eyes and pulled Stiles back so he was plastered against Derek's chest. “It isn't your business. Genim is leaving now, he needs to come home. Say your goodbyes,” Derek decreed. 

“Genim?” Danny questioned, distracted enough by the name that he didn't explode in rage at Derek's presumptuous and arrogant announcement.

“Uh, it's my birth name,” Stiles admitted quietly.

“Your name is Genim Stilinski? I'm having trouble deciding which is crueler, Stiles Stilinski or your real name,” Danny said.

Both Stiles and Derek sent him glares. “It's a family name!” Stiles mumbled.

“How long have you been going by Stiles?” Danny asked.

“When I was really young J-someone gave me the nickname, but we were like four and it didn't stick, especially with Scott refusing to call me it. It's only since I came to college that people call me Stiles,” he admitted.

“Can we hurry this along?” Derek growled and Stiles gathered up some of his belongings. That's when Danny realised what was happening here, this Dominant had showed up after years of no communication and demanded Stiles return with him, and Stiles was following order. It was unnatural.

“Wait, you're not seriously going home just because this... person tells you to? Someone you haven't seen in three years and who has no idea what your life is like now,” Danny said incredulously. It all sounded a bit Medieval to him.

Stiles looked genuinely upset. “Look,” he began sadly, “this is just the way things are. I came here to get an education,” Danny saw Derek stiffen at those words, a curious expression flicker over his face and he wondered if Derek could hear the lie as plainly as Danny could. Stiles was intelligent, sure, but he'd travelled a long way from home just to get 'an education' and it wasn't a coincidence. “But that's done, and I have to go back to my life now.”

Danny understood commitment and obligation and he would have been fine with the situation if only Stiles seemed slightly happy, instead of looking like he was being marched off to his death. Danny couldn't let him go like this, maybe it was the part of him that was a Dominant talking, not that it mattered. “Fine. But I'm coming with you.”

Stiles was stunned, eyes widening to almost comic size and lips parted invitingly. Derek made an inhuman sound in his throat. “No!”

Stiles turned to face his Dominant, calming him instantly. “He's not a threat, Derek, he really isn't. And he doesn't mean it like that, he's just being a good friend, and he is. A good friend I mean, really good. Please, just let him come with us for a few weeks, he'll see everything is fine and maybe get to meet my dad and everyone and then he'll leave, go back to his life, and it'll be emails and phone calls for the next fifty years. Please, just let me have this,” he said, begging with his eyes.

“He can't come. He's not p... family,” Derek said flatly.

“He's my family,” Stiles said strongly. 

Danny was surprised but pleased to hear Stiles say so.

Derek looked torn but apparently the expression on Stiles face made him mind up. He looked at Danny suspiciously. “Pack a bag, we leave in fifteen.”

“But I don't have everything packed!” Stiles protested.

“It's taking too long. We'll send for the rest later,” Derek said, and stormed out.

~ ~

The drive home took place in Derek's black Camaro with Danny in the back observing the tension in Stiles as he tried his best not to fidget. The silence only lasted so long, it was after all Stiles, but what actually surprised Danny was that when Stiles started to talk the deathly white grip that Derek had on the wheel loosened slightly, as if the man was relieved that 'Genim' was talking to him. Danny had expected it to annoy the Dom, instead of relax him. He guessed he had a lot to learn about the dynamics of their personalities and relationship, but nothing was going to stop him. He had this strong urge to make sure that Stiles was okay, no matter what, even though he didn't feel possessive over Stiles or responsible for him. It was like Stiles had said, despite the short amount of time they had known each other they were family, and family looked out for one another.

“Are you at least going to tell me how everyone is? I mean, I spoke to my dad about a week ago so unless things changed really fast he's still okay, but how about Laura and Boyd? Scott and Erica?” Stiles asked.

Derek's jaw twitched, and he checked the mirror in a way that made Danny think he was seeing if he was still awake and listening rather than a road safety precaution. “Fine.”

“Fine? They're all fine? Come on, Derek, I need details.”

“Maybe you should have stayed in contact, and then you wouldn't need to nag me for details about your friends and family.” Derek snapped, although there was no malice in his tone.

Stiles looked like someone had shot his puppy and it made Danny want to hurt Derek, badly. He wasn't sure what had driven Stiles to cut the people of Beacon Hills out of his life but there must have been a reason, and this Dominant had no right to go around making Stiles feel crappy about a decision that had cost him so much already. Except that he sort of did have the right, because somehow he was Stiles' Dom. A story that Danny was determined to hear the rest of.

“I know. I'm a crappy friend.”

Derek sighed. “They'll forgive you the moment they see you back home.”

“Yeah,” Stiles murmured without conviction. Danny thought that there was an unspoken 'but will you' that passed between the two of them and was surprised to see his anger at Derek's dickish behaviour turning to compassion for two people so obviously incapable of communicating past their issues. 

He leaned his forehead against the cold window and watched as they passed obscure dark shapes on the road to Stiles' past.

~ ~

By the time they reached Beacon Hills Danny had fallen asleep in the car and missed anything else that had happened, although he suspected from the stress echoed on Stiles and Derek's faces that nothing had been resolved. 

They parked outside of a small house with a neat lawn and the Sheriff's car in the open garage. Danny assumed this was Stiles' childhood home and was surprised that they weren't at Derek's home. He hardly seemed like the type of man to leave his Submissive in the care of their parent's rather than taking responsibility himself. Unless there was a reason they couldn't go to Derek's, like say Danny.

Still, a part of him was glad since he wasn't sure he trusted Derek. So far the man had broken into their home twice, stolen Stiles away from his life, upset Stiles, and been generally grumpy and secretive. At least Danny and Stiles would be safe at Stiles's dad's house, especially considering the man's job.

The Sheriff was much more welcoming. He was lean with sandy hair and was older than Danny had assumed, or maybe it was just that he hadn't aged well. He didn't look very much like his son which lead Danny to assume that Stiles took after his mom in the looks department. When the older Stilinski laid eyes on his son there was nothing there but love, and Danny was surprised, since Stiles tended to avoid physical contact with almost everyone, that when they hugged Stiles looked relaxed and peaceful. It didn't last long, soon they parted and the Sheriff turned his cool gaze onto Danny.

“You must be Daniel Mahealani, my son's told me a lot about you.”

Danny wanted instantly to assure Stiles' father that it was all untrue, like he'd done something wrong only he knew he hadn't. That steely look probably earned more admissions of guilt than interrogations ever did in this town. “It's good to meet you, sir.”

The Sheriff held his hand out and shook Danny's casually. “It's been a long time coming. Welcome to our house, I made up the guest room for you. It used to be my stepdaughter's so you'll have to excuse the 'dusky rose' wallpaper.”

Danny smiled. He already liked Stiles' dad.

“Thank you.”

Danny was surprised to note that Derek didn't follow them inside, just stayed by his car and with a meaningful nod in the Sheriff's direction he drove off to, presumably, what was his own residence. Stiles looked pained at the departure but was quickly distracted by pestering his dad about the whereabouts of his stepmother (a spa weekend with her old college buddies) and then about his dad's dieting habits. The Sheriff soon became exasperated by his son's lectures on the lifespan of those who only ate McDonald's and drank beer more often than water, but there was a strong affection behind their every gesture and word that Danny couldn't mistake as anything but familial love.

“How is everyone else?” Stiles asked once they were in the kitchen, where Stiles made him self at home almost as if there hadn't been a gap of three years since he had last been here. He rummaged through the fridge, making a disapproving noise whenever he found anything he considered had too much fat in it, and then popped the kettle on and started making hot drinks; two coffees, one milky with no sugar (for Danny) and the other almost black with artificial sweetner, presumably for his dad. Stiles himself didn't get a drink, instead helping himself to some oatmeal and cinnamon cookies he found in a jar near the sink. 

The Sheriff look his drink with a smile, but winced once he took a sip. “Everyone is f–, Genim, this is decaf.”

Danny could have laughed at the faux-innocent expression that Stiles wore. “Must have mixed up the cans. Oh well, no point wasting it, huh dad.”

Mr Stilinski rolled his eyes, muttering very quietly about how his son could have at the very least put sugar in it if he was going to take away the one thing that made drinking coffee heaven; the caffeine content. Stiles ignored his father and instead started picking up photographs from around the house. “Derek said they're all fine. He was lying, of course.”

Danny frowned and made sure to pay attention. The Sheriff took a deep breath and, avoiding his son's gaze, simply said, “I'm sure he had his reasons.”

Stiles glanced suspiciously from his father to Danny and then changed the subject, asking about Scott's wedding and Isaac's new job. Danny relaxed as he allowed the conversation to drift over him, eventually politely interrupting the father-son bonding session to tell them he was going up to bed, thus allowing them some privacy. Clearly there were some things that he as a stranger wasn't allowed to hear as the Sheriff was being just as uncooperative and secretive as Derek had been. But that wasn't his concern right now, getting a good night sleep was. 

~ ~

The next morning Stiles woke up to his best friend hammering on the door. Scott's eyes lit up when he saw Stiles and before he knew it he was being squished by a Scott-hug. It was everything warm and good about Beacon Hills. It reminded him of being six year old, all alone in the playground during recess waiting to make a friend, and then this puppy dog eyed boy with messy dark hair and a grin the size of Texas walks up and introduces himself as Scott. Ever since that moment he'd had friendship in his life. The type that helped him survive the death of his mom three years later, that didn't mind him sleeping over when his dad was on the night shift, the kind that survived even after four years of silence.

“I missed you, man,” Scott announced loudly, and Stiles was glad to see his friend hadn't changed a bit. He was still as soft as butter and not one bit ashamed of that fact.

“Me too. Hey, how is marriage treating you?” Stiles asked as Scott followed him inside the house.

“Good. Great. I'm the luckiest Dom on earth,” he said, eyes going gooey over the mere mention of his beloved Sub, Erica. Much to everyone's surprise, considering how puppy like Scott truly was, his dynamic with Erica was that of a sadist to her masochist, which had made a lot of people doubt their relationship's success. But there they were, years later with a collar on her neck and a ring on Scott's finger, going stronger than ever.

“Yeah you are,” Stiles agreed.

“Taking of Doms... how is yours doing?” Scott asked.

Stiles shied away from eye contact. “You'd know better than me.”

“Exactly my point. Dude, you two were like made for each other and yet somehow you manage to spend more time screwing it up than actually screwing.”

Stiles blushed and rolled his eyes, wishing he could deny the total truth of that statement.

“Oh my god, have you even done it? I mean, I know he wasn't around much when you were of age but you must have... at some point?” Scott probed.

“Actually no, we haven't.” It was a sore point of Stiles. He hated that even after being betrothed for over seven years and of age for almost four of them they still hadn't even come close to consummating the claim. It was another reason that Stiles had believed his Dom hadn't wanted him in his life. Who waited that long to have sex with their intended, especially when the intended in question was more than willing.

“You two are hopeless.”

“Who is hopeless?” Danny asked, entering the kitchen dressed in one of Stiles' old t-shirts that was too small for him and a pair of his own boxers. In his rush to pack pyjamas had been forgotten.

Scott instantly tensed up when he saw the other boy in the room. Stiles kicked him subtly under the table, drawing his attention long enough to shake his head at his friend. He wasn't sure why everyone immediately jumped to the wrong conclusion about his and Danny's friendship but it was starting to get annoying and was frankly quite insulting. He'd never hurt Derek by cheating on their relationship, even if the relationship itself was more theoretical than practical. 

“You must be Scott,” Danny said from the other side of the kitchen, making no move to gte closer to either Stiles or Scott.

“That's right, I'm Genim's best friend.”

“Cool. I'm Danny, Stiles' room-mate.”

“Stiles? Really?” Scott clearly decided that Danny wasn't a threat and switched tactics to teasing Stiles.

“Shut up.”

“Just wait until I tell Jackson,” Scott said with a smile.

“You wouldn't!”

“Yeah, man, I totally would.”

“Damn it, Scott. Fine, you tell Jackson but I'm telling you mom about the time you snuck Allison into your room and had sex under her roof. She'll probably refuse to men your clothes for a year.”

“Harsh, Genim,” Scott pouted.

“Who's Jackson?” It was another person that Danny was unfamiliar with, but while most other names had been mentioned last night, Danny couldn’t recall ever hearing anyone mention a 'Jackson'.

“A guy we went to school with. He's a bit of a loner, really.”

Scott snorted. “A bit? He redefines loner. He thinks he is too good for us mere mortals.”

“Ah, a jock then?” Danny asked, knowing of Stiles utter failing at competitive sports. It wasn't that the Submissive wasn't agile and fit, it was just that large crowds of people turned him into a bumbling wreck of nerves and he tended to trip up more than anything else. Danny had seen him surf with no one else around and the boy was great, but as soon as he sensed someone else watching he started messing up. This had lead to a high school life of longing to participate in sports but being unable to do much more than sit on a bench while other people got the glory. He had subsequently been labelled a geek, and thus hated all jocks.

“Only completely and utterly,” Stiles sighed, before changing the subject to get Danny more included in the conversation. He was pleasantly surprised to see Scott warm up to Danny, although he probably shouldn't be. No one had ever hated Danny, and Stiles was pretty sure it was going to stay that way.

~ ~

It hit him like a ton of bricks. One minute Danny was running along a marked pathway, keeping to the track only because he didn't know the area, and then he was stopped with an almost comical quickness, the thing that brought him to a standstill was a man.

That boy was god damned gorgeous. Cheek bones that could cut the hand that caressed, lips that brought obscene images to his mind and quickened his pulse. He'd never felt so strongly about anything ever before, as if he had only ever felt apathetic towards the men he had crushed on in the past, and this was what true desire was like.

He continued to watch the man from afar, knowing that he couldn't actually just run up to a stranger and say 'you're mine', especially when he had no idea of his beautiful stranger's dynamic, or even his own to be honest as he usually just characterised himself as a 'switch'. The man walked down the street away from the Sheriff's house and all too soon he was out of sight, but Danny could still feel the exhilaration that had lit him up when he'd caught a glimpse of that stranger and a part of him didn't want to ever feel anything but this. Another part of him, the part that wouldn't admit to a dynamic, wanted to hide away, get back to normal and convince himself that he had never felt this way. Something this strong, this powerful, couldn't be real could it? 

The decision was taken away from him. The boy was startled out of his solitude by the ringing of his cell. With a tick in his jaw that seemed to signify annoyance he lifted the device to his ear, his expression changing to concern as he listened to the caller. Then he was gone, and Danny was alone staring at the place where he had been, wishing fr just one more moment to look upon the beautiful man.

~~

The day wasn't over before Stiles found himself reconnecting to another of his long lost best friends. Scott had gone to work at the veterinary clinic while Danny had decided to go out for a run which, for Danny, was a solitary task. This left Stiles with too much time on his hand, so he'd texted Lydia Martin and made his way over to the house she had 'inherited' in her parents divorce. 

“It's good to see you,” Stiles said, hugging Lydia tightly and honestly meaning it with every bone in his body.

“You too, brother,” Lydia said. He wasn't her real brother, only related by the marriage of her mother and his father, but right now it seemed important to remember that she was family, she was home. 

“You look good,” he said awkwardly when they parted.

She huffed and flicked her hair in irritation. “I can't believe you never learned to lie,” she said, smiling slightly to show she wasn't annoyed. It was true that Stiles sucked at lying, well, he could lie but sooner or later it would all fall apart and he'd be stuck between a rock and his dad and the rock would be the worse option. Lydia did look good, except 'good' for her was bad for anyone else. Pretty as ever but she was clearly stressed, not even her make up could hide the dark smudges beneath her eyes that told him exactly how little sleep his stepsister had been getting. She's lost weight, her cheekbones and collarbone were sharp and it didn't suit her. Isaac must not have been looking after her very well.

“How is Isaac?” He asked, politely.

“Changing the subject, a wise choice Genim. Isaac is fine, studying hard for final exams. I understand yours have just finished, does that mean you aren't just passing through?” Lydia asked pointedly.

“Maybe. Probably. Am I a bad person if I admit that I don't know any more?”

“Yes.” She laughed. “No, it just makes you human.”

Stiles wrinkled his noise. “Around here that's bad enough.”

He saw his stepsister's smile falter and her eyes darken. Something was going on with her, and as usual she was hiding the Hell out of it. He knew better than to just out right ask her if she was okay, that was the worse kind of mistake to make.

“Come on, we've got so much catching up to do,” she led him to the sofa, smile back in place and brighter than ever even though it didn't reach her eyes. Lydia's number one defence was to smile. When they were kids she used to say 'don't frown, Genim, someone could be falling in love with your smile'. Isaac had certainly fallen for Lydia's smile, he would do anything, literally, to make her grin or laugh. Derek on the other hand... well Stiles was fairly sure it wasn't his facial expressions that caused them to mate bond.

Two hours later and they were both laughing like they'd inhaled a ton of Nitrous Oxide. They had been swapping anecdotes on their friends and apparently growing up didn't equal maturity, especially not in Scott's case as a ridiculous number of hi-jinx involved his own stupidity and a lack of others willing to stop him. Still, it wasn't all fun and games. “You heard about Alice?”

Stiles looked down at his hands as they worried at a woollen blanket that his aunt had knitted years ago and had somehow managed to become Lydia's. “Yeah. I, uh, couldn't make it back for the funeral.”

Lydia nodded. “I want to tell you it was a beautiful ceremony but there isn't really anything pretty about burying a one month old.”

Alice Hale, named after her maternal grandmother, had been Laura and Boyd's baby, born dangerously early. After a year or so of mourning they had tried for another baby but soon been told by specialists that there was no hope. Laura had devoted herself to being the best alpha she could ever hope to be after that, and Boyd had loyally stood by her side prepared to be her shoulder to cry on or a voice of reason to remind her of her own limitations. Stiles knew it had been a bad time for everyone in the Pack. It hadn't been easy to stay away.

“I'm pregnant,” Lydia announced into the silence that had fallen between them.

“Congratulations,” he said instantly, but taking in her hollow tone and dull glassy eyes he could tell that wasn't the appropriate response. “You... you are happy about this?” He asked.

Her hand leapt protectively to her stomach. “Of course. It's what Isaac and I have been wanting, and with our final years of college almost up and his job offer it couldn't be more convenient. It's just... did you know that this baby will be one of only two Hale heirs?”

He hadn't thought about it like that, but with Laura barren and Derek mated to a man that left Isaac, who was a cousin descended from the same grandmother, the last Hale and Lydia the mother of his children. It didn't necessarily mean that Lydia's child would inherit title of 'Alpha' but it gave the child a head start. “Are you worried about the other's reactions?”

“No. I just don't want to tell everyone too early. Bad things seem to happen to pregnant werewolves in this town,” she added ominously.

“Just because Laura can't have any more kids doesn't mean...”

“It's not just Laura. Erica can't have children either, and Lily's had three miscarriages since she and Dash started trying. Helen's too young to tell but... it's only me and Melissa who have conceived successfully in the past three years. I know it sounds superstitious but I don't want anything going wrong and it that means I have to keep a secret then so be it,” she said stubbornly.

Stiles nodded. “Thanks for telling me.”

“You and Isaac are the only ones who know. I haven't even told Deacon yet.”

“You don't want to jinx it.”

“Yes,” she agreed woodenly. “Yes, that's it exactly.”

~ ~

Stiles waited until they kidnapped him to voice his opinion. Scott looked like he had kicked him in the gut when Stiles asked why, because once upon a time being called in the middle of the night to chauffeur Scott and the others around had been normal, had been exciting. Memories to be made. Now it was a cruel reminder of what he's missed out on over the past few years, and also how easily they fell back into old patterns. If Stiles was going to be back here, then things were going to be different. His relationship with his friends, his family... his Dom, was going to be different. Leaving hadn't only been about getting an education. He'd also had the distance he needed to figure out what kind of a person he was.

“I've been back five minutes,” he groused, “and already we're into the cloak and dagger stuff.”

“Well, you're the one who brought a guest home with you,” Scott pointed out reasonably, but Stiles could tell it bothered him. No where near as much as it seemed to be bothering Derek, but if it inspired some possessive jealousy in the man who once told him he was just a kid with a stupid crush who needed to grow up then good. Derek needed to expand his range of emotions anyway, not that fear, anger, and depression didn't look good on him (everything looked good on him, the bastard) just that Stiles would like to see something else. Something meaningful that would explain why they had bonded when Derek didn't even seem to like Stiles most of the time, let alone want to spend eternity basking in his company.

“Danny's important to me, and he brought himself. What's so important that it couldn't wait until I had one night of sleep in my old bedroom?”

“Derek told you, about Peter being missing?” Scott said.

Stiles nodded. “I'm sorry, man.”

Peter Hale was one of the three survivors of the tragic fire that had destroyed the Hale pack and decimated the family. Derek had been just a kid, Laura not even eighteen yet. Peter had been the one to take then in afterwards, finish raising them into the amazing people they were to become. Not long afterwards Peter had married Scott's mom, officially making the Hales Scott's family. 

“And the death?”

“Derek said it was someone we went to school with.”

“Matt Daehler.”

“Right. The creepy kid with the camera. Hey, didn't he stalk Allison for like a year before her dad showed him their gun collection?”

“He wasn't creepy... he was hot. In a kind of dangerous way.” Lydia specified.

Isaac frowned from besides his Domme while Stiles made a sound of disgust in his throat. “Ugh, like your opinion on guys even counts, I mean you dated Jackson for years so clearly you have awful taste.”

Lydia sent him a death glare that would send most sensible humans running for their lives. “Oh, I'm sorry, and exactly who was his best friend when we were kids?” She asked pointedly.

Stiles didn't answer. It was true that he and Jackson had been close as toddlers, their moms had been pregnant together and he always thought that their deepest wishes had been that their sons, born three days apart, would be best friends. For a while that had been the case. Then they'd grown up.

“What's the point of this meeting? Derek already told me that Peter's missing.”

“We think it has something to do with the death.” Lydia's voice was uncharacteristically tight and he saw that her hands moved to cradle her stomach which had yet to swell to a notable size.

“Yeah,” Scott jumped in, “like maybe something bad has happened to Peter. I mean, he's gone off on his own before but never without letting mom know and not for this long.”

“Of course there is a killer on the loose. This is afterall Beacon Hills, least safe small town in all California,” Stiles sighed. “Why did anyone think it was a good idea to drag me back here with a killer around?”

“You're safer with us,” Isaac pointed out, eyes flashing.

“Really? Safer than say a hundred miles away?” 

“Are you mad at us for wanting you back?” Scott asked, and Stiles immediately felt bad. His best friend was like a puppy that needed constant hugs, and right now Stiles wasn't being very huggy.

“No, of course not. I was coming back anyway. Just not in the middle of the night at a moments notice without letting any of my professors or friends know.” 

“Derek had his reasons for doing as he did,” Isaac assured Stiles. Of course Isaac would know. After the death of his parents when he was sixteen, Isaac had gone to live with Derek who was a cousin of some sort. They were still close. 

“That's what everyone keeps telling me,” Stiles said. Only, if Derek had his reasons, didn't Stiles have a right to know what they were? If so, he was apparently the only one who thought so.

 

~INTERLUDE~

When Scott came home, he found his wife waiting for him where she should be – knelt entirely naked in the living room adorned only by her jewelled studded leather collar. This wasn't a common occurrence, since the realities of life often necessitated that she be elsewhere (clothed), but sometimes on rare occasions he had the immense pleasure of feeling like a king in his own home and it only made him love her more knowing that she was the one who willingly and happily gave him that feeling. 

He approached her, cupping her face with his hands and placing a gentle kiss on her forehead. “You are a gift, you know that?”

She smiled up at him with knowledge and victory in her eyes. Ever since she had been turned, Erica had pursued Scott informing him that he belonged with her, despite the fact that at sixteen he'd been head over heals for a human girl called Allison. Erica had taken her time and eventually Scott understood that he and Allison weren't a good match, and that Erica was everything he could ever want or need. They had married only a year ago and in Scott's opinion the only thing that had stopped the day from perfection had been the absence of his best friend. Derek had stood in for Genim as best man, which Scott figured was appropriate since Derek was not only his kind-of-stepbrother but also Genim's Dom. There could have been no better substitute. 

“I knew you'd be having an... interesting day and I wanted to make sure you could talk to me when you arrived home,” she explained.

“Talk... right,” he agreed, easily distracted by the familiar and fascinating expanse of beautiful pale skin before him.

She laughed playfully. Scott sat down on the second-hand couch that Peter had helped him pick up two years ago when he and Erica had moved in together and opened his legs wide to allow his wife the room to lie in-between them, her head resting on his warm thigh as she licked her lips and ran long finger nails along the seem of his jeans. 

“Perhaps a bit of stress relief first?” She suggested, teasing him with her big brown eyes.

Scott unbuckled his belt but didn't help any further, lying back to watch his submissive. Erica's smile grew wider as she accepted the challenge. Seductively she leaned forward, and using only her teeth and tongue expertly unbuttoned his jeans and pulled the zipper down. Her hands then joined the effort, caressing his inner thighs before brushing against the bulge in his underwear before pulling his boxers down freeing his cock. The next thing he knew, all coherent thought was rushing out of his mind as she sucked him down.

Afterwards, sated and relaxed, he pulled her up to lie on top of him as he stretched out on the couch. His fingers idly running through her long golden hair and, every so often, pinching at her rosebud nipples in a deliberately arousing manner. 

“So, honey, how was your day,” Erica asked, failing to sound domestic in her breathless voice as she struggled not to press into the caresses.

He shrugged. “It was good to see Genim again,” he answered the question she had really asked.

“I'm sure it was. Are you happy to have him back home?”

“Yes,” he said immediately, but he didn't even sound convincing to himself. 

“But...”

He sighed. “I am happy he's home, and I'm really happy to see him and talk to him again. I guess it's just that... maybe I'm still a little angry that he left in the first place. Never even said goodbye or explained why... We needed him, and he just ran away from us, from his family.”

Scott sounded like a lost puppy and Erica pushed away the sadness that it evoked in her. She wiggled her hips to get closer to him, not enough to make him think she was attempting an orgasm, and pressed a loving kiss to his collarbone. “I know, but maybe he had his reasons.”

Scott snorted. “Reasons? For abandoning his friends and family, leaving home without saying goodbye, betraying his own Dominant... What explanation could ever be good enough for all that?”

Erica was silent as she allowed Scott to wind down from his outburst. She had nothing to say that he wanted to hear, but he needed to hear it anyway and she was going to tell him even if he didn't want to listen. Sometimes Scott's thinking was too literal, too black and white. Erica was all about the gray. “Did you ever think that perhaps he wasn't running away from home, but he was running from Derek?”

“That doesn’t make any sense. Derek never did anything to make Genim need to run from him, and even if he had Genim knows how crazy it is not run from a wolf. They chase.”

“Exactly,” Erica said smugly, rewarding him with another kiss. “Except Derek didn't chase after Genim, he just let him get away. Thus proving that he never wanted him in the first place. Once Genim had gone to all the trouble of running away to college, he couldn't exactly just come back. He has some pride, after all.”

Scott froze as her words penetrated his sometimes dense skull. He had known Genim since they were in kindergarten, been through parental divorce, maternal death, the creation of stepfamilies, and even coming of age together. He'd been there for the first meeting between Genim and Derek, knew all the details of every other encounter either from Gemin's graphic descriptions or Derek's vague explanations. He never doubted that his brother and his best friend were meat to be, or that they were in bond love. Somehow the idea that Genim had doubted it seemed alien and yet entirely plausible. 

He groaned. “They are so stupid! How do they manage to make such a mess of something so natural?”

“I don't know, Scott, how did you manage to almost do the exact same thing?” Erica asked pointedly.

Scott retaliated by making a fist in her hair and pulling on it sharply. She whimpered and ground her pelvis against his jean-clad leg.

“I was young and foolish.”

“Don't worry, you got wiser,” she panted and leaned in for a kiss.

There was no more talk of Genim or Derek that night, but later, much later, as he fell asleep next to his wife her words stayed with him and maybe, just maybe, he started to forgive Genim for the sins he had counted against him for all these years.

~ ~

“And just where have you been mister?” Stiles asked, startling Danny as he returned the next morning. Stiles hadn't seen him since the day before, he'd been so busy meeting various friends and being kidnapped by them that he'd lost track of his room mate. 

“Exploring your home,” Danny answered shortly. He'd slept here last night but spent most of the day out around Beacon Hills trying to find that boy again.

Stiles shrugged. “It's not really my home. I mean, yeah, this is where I grew up but home... home was my mom giving me a hug when I fell over, or me and Scott on the play-station late at night while we ate popcorn, or Lydia sat at my desk moaning about how Jackson didn't 'get it' while I complained that Derek was never around to get. This place... it's not what I remember.”

“You've been gone four years, Stiles. People grow up, change. You did. It doesn't mean this isn't your home any more,” Danny said, attempting to comfort his friend.

“You're my home, too, now. I felt as much at home studying in our dorm while The Beatles played in the background as I ever have.”

Danny didn't want to be but he found himself overwhelmed with emotion at his friend's declaration. It amazed him how Stiles let people into his heart, into his life, without even seeming to make it an effort. He just... loved. Danny loved too, but he wasn't as wordy about it. He showed his emotions through his actions, through his desire to protect and nurture. Understanding that Stiles knew how he felt about him in return he chose to change the subject to something light hearted that had been bugging him for years. 

“So, how exactly did you come to earn the moniker of 'Stiles'?”

“I... actually it was Jackson who named me,” he said, surprising Danny

“Jackson... I've heard his name before.”

“He's close to my friends. Sort of. No one is actually close with Jackson, not even Lydia and she dated him for years before realising that he wasn't capable of letting her Top him. He's broken, I guess. Once upon a time we were friends, but his parents died when he was a kid and he was never the same after that.”

“He sounds lonely,” Danny said, and blushed because he realised how weird that sounded considering he had never even met the guy before.

“Maybe,” Stiles snorted. “Probably, but he made his own loneliness.”

“You can't run from your past. It's like trying to hide from your shadow. No matter how far you go, it's always right there beside you,” Stiles said, looking out the window with an intensity that suggested he was trying not to blink for fear that tears would fall. Contrary to mean-spirited rumours, Stiles didn't cry easily but he was a very emotional guy. It worried Danny that being back in his home town was such an ordeal for Stiles, especially considering the shady circumstances in getting here.

“You don't have to be here, Stiles,” Danny said softly.

Stiles shook his head. “No. I do. I was always coming back, it's time to grow up and stop running away,” he insisted with the ferocity of a zealot. 

Danny swallowed down his unease at the situation and shuffled closer to the sub. “It'll be okay,” he said, ignoring the way it tasted like a lie. He reached out and enveloped Stiles in a hug, letting his room-mate snuggle into the warmth of his body as they both stared out at the window and pretended they couldn't feel the salty tear drops fall from Stiles' eyes.  
~ ~

“Do you remember how we met? Properly, I mean.” Derek asked, his eyes searching Stiles' face.

He shook his head at first, because he didn't recall the exact moment that Derek entered his life. Then he said, “I remember that when I was about thirteen you started coming around the house a lot, and that my dad would always send me to my room.”

“And you would always go sit on the staircase behind your dad's back and stare at me,” Derek added.

“Why is this important?” Stiles asked.

“I was nineteen then, technically an adult. I had started to work with your dad because as second in line for alpha it was my responsibility to keep the law, which meant working in conjunction with your dad since he was the Sheriff of human law,” Derek said, which was nothing that Stiles didn't already know. If Laura ever stepped down or died the mantel of alpha would pass to Derek, unless Boyd, who was Laura's Submissive, decided to fight him for it. Stiles was 99.9% sure that Boyd would never challenge Derek, in fact he deferred to him now even though he technically held the same rank within the pack. Laura's death would destroy Boyd, which Stiles completely understood, he wouldn't be in any shape to battle anyone. “I knew, when I saw you, that I would want to claim you someday. I wasn't sexually attracted to you then, you were just a kid, but our bond goes deeper than a human could feel. It was hard, because your dad realised it straight off and wanted to keep us apart until you were older. We both knew you were a Submissive but you hadn't come out and announced it so we wanted to give you more time. I spent years waiting for you to be ready...”

A range of volatile and conflicting emotions poured through Stiles' body, making him shake with his inability to contain or even understand them. “But you left,” he interrupted. “You took off for months, missed by seventeenth birthday, and then ignored me for for years,” he said, blame and guilt battling for dominance in his voice. The guilt was aimed at himself, because he'd always felt like maybe he'd done something to drive Derek away, like the concept of being with Stiles made him so repulsed he had to leave the town which he'd called home.

It was in fact Derek's treatment of Stiles that had made him apply for colleges far from Beacon Hills. Believing his affections unreturned and that his presence in town was causing Derek problems, he had decided to remove himself from the painful situation. He had tried talking to Scott about it, but by this point his best friend had been both a werewolf and Derek's 'brother' by the marriage of Melissa and Peter and all conversations had ended with Scott valiantly defending Derek and Stiles storming off in a mood. Lydia had been no help at this point either, since she'd just broken up with Jackson and had hated all men, her idea of advising Stiles had been to make biting retorts to how much Derek obviously preferred the company of Erica and Isaac to Stiles. Eventually he had stopped talking about it to people and made his own secret plans, telling no one until the last moment. 

~ ~

Jackson knew that Danny was his mate the moment he laid eyes on the man. He met the news with resignation and a slight resentment. He'd never sought to find his mate, never wanted that life for himself. He had power now, physical strength as well as the transformative magic that gave him his inhuman gifts and second form. Ever since his parents died, orphaning him at age eight, he had longed to be the master of his own fate. It was the reason he'd asked for the bite and rejected a place in the pack, he wanted to be subject to no wolf's law or control. Having a mate was the opposite of being in control of yourself.

Jackson was a Submissive, he had struggled with the discovery and fought it with everything he had in him but it remained as true as the fact he had freckles and that his hair was brown. He'd never experimented with his Submissive side, not allowing his then girlfriend to top him in any way before eventually breaking things off realising that they were hurting each other unnecessarily. He guessed that if he was a Submissive then his mate was a Dominant? Probably... he wasn't sure if worked that way. It seemed to, in the examples he had around him; Lydia dominated Isaac, Laura was Boyd's Domme, Erica the sub in her relationship with Scott, and Genim was the Submissive to Derek's Dom. Not that Genim and Derek were exactly a good example of relationships. Derek was always toning down his dominant side because he was afraid he'd push Genim into something the kid wasn't ready for or couldn't deal with, but Genim was longing for Derek to make a move and let him know he was wanted. If you asked Jackson, which no one had, he would have told Genim what a stupid mistake running had been, and then told Derek what a fool he was for not following. It had been a long time since Genim had looked to Jackson for advice. Since before his parents and Genim's mom had died. Back when they used to be friends. Back when Jackson had been happy.

The pull was there, between Jackson and Danny. Undeniable despite Jackson's inner protest. He could tell that Danny thought so too, even though the other man had no idea why he would be drawn to Jackson, and he could hardly tell him. How long would it be before Danny took it upon himself to demand answers, to take what he wanted? That was assuming that he was a Dom, it did seem odd that he was Genim's roommate if he was a Dom. Usually colleges tried to keep Subs and Doms in separate accommodation. Would it be easier if Danny was a sub? Then they'd have to ignore each other in respect to their dynamics. 

~ ~

In typical Jackson fashion, Stiles managed not to run into him until the very moment he wanted to be alone. He just needed some air, some space to assimilate all that had changed since he'd been gone. He needed to remember that running away hadn't just been about finding himself away from the pack, but also about a genuine desire to get an education. Being back here it was like he'd missed all his friends' biggest moments and Stiles wanted to remind himself that it had been for a reason, and that

“What are you doing back, Genim?” Jackson asked, his voice was stiff with anger and hurt. 

“Derek dragged me back,” he said.

One of Jackson's eyebrows arched high in disbelief. “And what, you just let him? That's not the Genim I know.”

Stiles glared. “I was always gonna come back!”

“Oh really? Then why did Derek have to 'drag' you back?” he asked bitingly. Jackson had always had a chip on his shoulder and it had caused him many issues within the pack and went some way to explaining why he was so alienated from the people who cared about him. Jackson actually used to be fairly close to Stiles when they had been kids since their moms had been high school friends, but it had all changed when Jackson met Lydia. He spent the next ten years trying to do everything he could to impress her all the while making her feel like crap about herself. Stiles wasn't sure how they managed to screw things up so impressively, but he couldn't help but find it amusingly ironic that he'd ended up mated to the second-in-line for alpha with Lydia as one of his best friends while Jackson was alone. Not that he was happy his old friend had ended up like this, but Stiles could say with conviction that Jackson brought it on himself.

“Why do you care so much? I thought you'd be happy I was gone,” Stiles asked.

Jackson looked away, his cheeks flushed slightly. “I never wanted you gone.” The words were whispered from behind gritted teeth, as if it pained him to confess and yet he was compelled to do so. To Stiles it was more than just admitting he hadn't revelled in Stiles' absence. It sounded like he was sorry that their friendship had ended. Or maybe Stiles was just being unnecessary sentimental.

“Look, we need to talk.”

“Seriously? You think we have anything to talk about after more than ten years of avoiding each other?” Jackson bit at him with no small amount of resentment behind his words.

“It wasn't like I was the reason we stopped being friends.”

“No. Of course not.”

Stiles glared. “About Danny. We need to talk about Danny.”

“You room mate from college? The human?”

“You say human like it's something to be looked down on, but I'm human. So were you, once,” Stiles pointed out. He didn't want Jackson to know but it hurt him that he was held in such low regard by Jackson. Just because he didn't jump on the werewolf bandwagon didn't make him a lesser being, it just made him sensible. Why would he put his life in danger just to receive supernatural gifts? He just wasn't that kind of risk taker. For Erica and Scott it had made sense to become werewolves; they both had medical conditions that had been cured by lycanthropy. Stiles was fairly sure that ADHD wasn't going to be fixed by getting better sight, hearing, becoming faster and stronger. That pretty much sounded like a recipe for disaster. No apologies for being the only sensible one in this town. 

“I don't look down on you. I just think werewolves are better than humans.”

Stiles rolled his eyes. Talk about missing the point. “Right, because you spend so much time socialising with werewolves. You've become a recluse since getting the bite, Jackson.”

“My own company is the best. Why settle for less?” Jackson threw at him, but they were meaningless words. Neither of them believed in what he was saying, and the fact that Jackson knew he wasn't fooling him was written all over his face.

“Jackson, you need to leave Danny alone. I know he's developed a sort of obsession with you, but, as you pointed out, he's human and he'll be going home soon.” Stiles was shocked to see pain flash across his ex-best friend's face, as if the idea of Danny leaving caused him anguish so severe that even with his experience he couldn't hide the emotion. It made Stiles reevaluate everything he had believed about Danny and Jackson. Maybe asking Jackson to back away was the worst thing he could do in this situation? Maybe it was like running away from the person he loved all over again.

“Trust me. There was never any intention of doing anything but leaving the human alone,” Jackson insisted, injecting enough scorn and distain into his voice to make Stiles rethink his assesment of the situation.

“Good,” Stiles bit back. “Because he deserves someone better than you.”

Stiles turned to leave without watching the hopelessly lonely expression shadow Jackson's face and he was out of hearing range by the time Jackson whispered “I know”.

~ ~

Apparently Stiles wasn't the only one concerned with Danny's growing fascination with Jackson, although Derek and Laura had different reasons to call a Pack Meeting over the issue. Jackson was in the Pack, but only because he'd received the bite from Laura a few years before after making his case. He never hung out with the Pack, didn't adhere to any Pack hierarchy unless compelled to by his bond to Laura, and generally snubbed every aspect of werewolf society that didn't allow him to be a loner who did whatever the hell he wanted to, when he wanted to. Laura always said that it was up to Jackson to accept the Pack as his family, and that if he never did then that was his decision and everybody (meaning Boyd and Derek who were both fiercely loyal to the pack and Laura) had to accept that. Stiles, knowing what he did about the psychology of werewolves through his experiences with Scott and observations of Derek, understood that having a Pack kept werewolves grounded and stable. He didn't know how Jackson remained so in control without the influence of the Pack.

“What are we doing here?” Jackson asked when he arrived, a full thirty minutes before he was scheduled to because when Laura asked something of him he tended to cave pretty quickly, more out of fear that she would start to compel his obedience than an actual desire to please her. 

“I've called this meeting to discuss the ramifications of Danny Mahealani's infatuation with you,” Laura said calmly, exerting every ounce of Dominance and control she had over her pack to keep things civilised. 

Jackson rolled his eyes. “Seriously, I've hardly even met the guy.”

“You know he's been following you, hoping to catch a glance of you. And I've seen you interact with him. It's obvious to everyone around you that you want to bare your neck to him,” Isaac said from where he stood over-protectively next to Lydia.

Jackson roared in fury and charged at the tall Submissive. Suddenly they were both pulled apart by Derek. “Control yourselves!” He hissed.

“How dare you!” Jackson spat.

“Are you angry because I inferred you're a Submissive – which by the way, everybody knows that, or because I suggested you'd like to bend over for a measly human?” Isaac asked with scorn in his voice. He and Jackson had never gotten along, and likely never would. It could be because Jackson knew that Isaac's father beat him up every day as a kid, or perhaps because they both dated Lydia.

“Isaac!” Lydia said sharply, and her Submissive immediately lowered his eyes and stepped back from the confrontation, falling silent in shame that he'd displeased his Domme.

“Jackson,” Lydia turned her shrewd green eyes on her ex-boyfriend. “Is there more to the story? A reason you think that Danny isn't a threat?”

“Of course he isn't a threat!” Stiles burst out, unable to keep quiet any longer. If anyone was a threat it was Jackson to Danny. The guy had a temper, and with his supernatural strength he was a force of his own.

“Genim, this isn't about your friendship,” Derek's lip curled at the word. “With the boy. It's about protecting our secret.”

“This is ridiculous. You're all assuming that Danny is a Dom, when even Danny doesn't know what he is. He just calls himself a Switch.”

“Pfff,” Lydia said. “He's a Dominant or I'm a nun. He'd probably just never gotten in touch with his Dom side, like how Boyd struggled with his Submission until he found Laura.”

“Yeah,” Erica agreed dreamily. “Trust me, that man's all Dom!” 

“Watch it,” Scott growled out softly, squeezing his wife's hand in a painful grip. Erica smiled at the show of jealousy, an emotion she never got bored of seeing on her husband's face, and sighed at the delicious pain.

“Fine, he's a Dom,” Stiles huffed. “Doesn't mean he's gonna top Jackson and make him blab about all our secrets. Besides, we can trust him.”

“Can we? I mean, I know you've known him for years but Genim, sometimes it's the people closest to us that we can't trust.”

Stiles shot Lydia a look. “What do you mean?” Laura asked, concerned.

“I think-”

“I think it's interesting that you're having this discussion without me, since apparently it concerns me,” Danny said from the open doorway.

“You're an outsider,” Derek snarled at him.

“This is P-family business,” Laura said calmly.

“No, it's my business. And Jackson's, and as far as I know he isn't family and neither am-”

Black. Stiles was blind, but only for a moment. Then his poor human eyes slowly filtered the light and allowed him to see the shapes in the dark as Laura groped for the light until they all realised the power had been cut deliberately.

“Lydia, get behind me!” Isaac hissed at his Domme as he backed away from the windows.

“I'm sure it's just a malfunction,” she replied, but her voice wavered and Stiles saw her hands clutch at her stomach protectively as she hit the wall.

Derek surged forward, and then fell to the ground.

All Stiles could smell was the iron tang of blood as his Dom's split on the ground. Erica brought forth a candle and then the damage was obvious. 

“Derek!” Stiles screamed in anguish, rushing to the fallen man's side and pressing his hand against the wound. Tears slipped from his eyes when he felt blood pour out of Derek's body. There was only one reason he'd be this badly injured without his natural healing abilities kicking in to save his life.

“Wolfsbane,” Stiles whispered as he pulled out the arrow that had poisoned Derek.

“Shit. He needs a hospital,” Danny said.

“No,” Laura bit out, standing between the human and her brother.

“No, it's okay. I'll call it in and Deacon can accompany him. If he heads to Beacon Hills general they'll know what to do,” Scott reminded them. It such a close knit community it was sometimes a blessing that everyone knew.

“Right,” Laura nodded fretfully.

“Is there anyone out there?” Scott asked, noticing that Isaac was staring out the window.

“Not any more.”

“Must have been hunters,” Boyd said with disgust, speaking for the first time that evening.

“Or that's just what he wants us to think,” Lydia whispered as the ambulances sirens drowned out her voice.

~ ~

Danny waited patiently for the explanation of what had just happened. He watched with a wary expression as Derek Hale was loaded up into the ambulance, Dr Deacon, the vet, was with him reassuring Stiles that Derek would be fine. Stiles looked lost as the ambulance left. His hands were now stained with his Dom's blood but he didn't even notice that, or the tears that still poured down his face.

Jackson, of all people, was the first one to approach Stiles. He reached out, touched Stiles' shoulder and spoke soft words to him when the shocked man flinched. Gently Jackson led him away from the scene and started tending his wounds, which were minor in comparison to Derek and Erica's. Still, he dabbed with wet cottonwool at Stiles' split lip with surprising tenderness, treating the wound with antiseptic and washing away the dried blood. By the end of the process Stiles was notably calmer. That was when Danny decided he was owed his answers and he wasn't willing to wait any longer.

“I think it's time you told me what's going on,” he said firmly.

Jackson's jaw ticked as if he wanted to tell Danny where to go, but instead he just withdrew all the while avoiding Danny's gaze. Danny watched him out of the corner of his eyes, expecting Jackson to join Scott in the hunt or seek Laura and Boyd out. Instead the boy retreated, alone and wary. Danny fought down the impulse to go after him and concentrated on Stiles.

“I'll tell you, but you won't believe me,” he warned.

“After this I think I can suspend my disbelief,” Danny promised and escorted Stiles to his Jeep.

An hour later they were sat in the Stilinski kitchen with hot cocoa in front of them. 

“You live in a town with werewolves,” Danny said weakly.

“Well, so do you, you just didn't know it,” Stiles snorted dismissively.

“Well I do now.”

“Just... just don't let anyone know that you know. In Beacon Hills everyone knows, and we like it that way. But most other towns aren't so open. It's not just that there are werewolves, it's that there are also people who hunt them for a living. They're the ones who killed Derek's family, and they're not too worried about the human casualties either.”

“Who.. are any of your friend werewolves?” Danny asked, even though something told him eh already knew the answer.

Stiles met his gaze squarely. “Yes. All the Hales, obviously. Also Scott, Isaac, Erica... Peter. And Jackson.”

“Jackson.” 

Stiles let the silence between them linger for moments before he spoke again. “I know you and he have something-”

“Do werewolves mate?”

“Yes. That's what me and Derek have. Yes, it's probably what you and Jackson have. Just... be careful. It isn't always what you think it is. Being mated and being in love aren't the same thing, not exactly, and being mate bonded isn't an assurance against heart break. Trust me.”

“Stiles, no one can promise that,” Danny told him quietly.

“Yeah,” he replied with pain evident in his voice. “But don't you just wish they'd try?”

~ ~

“I was so freaking scared,” Stiles admitted, scrubbing the back of his hand over his face as if trying to remove any trace of the tears he'd cried.

“Shh, come here,” Derek cooed, and Stiles didn't fight his urges, he just bundled himself into Derek's warmth and breathed in the familiar scent of forest, spice and Derek that reassured him this wasn't a dream. “It's okay, it's okay to be scared, Genim. I'm scared every day that the people I love will be taken away from me.”

“Yeah, but you can do something about it. I'm just... human,” Stiles said.

“It's not your job to do put yourself in danger,” Derek said firmly with a bite to his words.

“Why?” Stiles asked, moving out of Derek's embrace. “Because I'm human or because I'm a Submissive?”

“Because you're mine!” Derek's eyes flashed ice blue at him.

“Really,” Stiles said, unimpressed. “Really? You want to pull that possessive cave man shit on me now? It never seemed to bother you before, Derek, so I'm not sure what makes you think that it means you get a say in how I live my life now.”

“You're just being stubborn.”

He rolled his eyes. “That doesn't invalidate my point.” He shifted back so that he was lying in Derek's warmth, but there was a distance between them now that hadn't been there before. 

“Erica has a theory,” Derek announced when the silence had become uncomfortable.

Stiles snorted. “That girl is a menace.” He remembered what she'd been like at school before she'd started dating Scott. One minute she was shy and retiring, the next it was an explosion of leather and red lipstick and skirts at least a hand-span shorter than the school's dress code allowed. All the Dominants had wanted her attention but she'd only had eyes for Scott who'd been crazy for Allison at the time. She'd gotten her man eventually and having seen the effect that she had on Scott, and vice versa, he could only admit that she'd been perfectly right. Scott was her perfect match and they did belong together.

Lucky them, having that certainty. That victory over teenage hormones and youthful misunderstandings. Even now, lying in his true match's arms, Stiles knew that nothing was fixed or resolved or perfect. It was all just a bloody mess of broken hearts and murky memories.

“She thinks that you ran away in order to entice me to follow you.”

Stiles froze, his heart skipped a beat and he was all too aware of the fact that Derek knew all of his reactions. “Okay, first of all I didn't run away. I left Beacon Hills to go to college, a perfectly acceptable and reasonable thing for an eighteen year old to do. You just didn't like it because I never asked your permission. Secondly, it's all a moot point really because you didn't follow me.”

“So that was what you were after.”

“No. I mean.... don't say it like that. Like I was some kid with a crush who wanted attention from the hot Dom at school. You're my mate, right, soul bonded and all that mystical werewolf crap, but when I was sixteen you pushed me away, basically told me to get over myself and that you were busy with adult things. After that, well let's just say this is probably the longest and most honest conversation we've had in almost eight years.”

Derek looked uncomfortable. “You were a kid, and I made a promise to your father that I wouldn't touch you until you were of age.” He admitted stiffly. 

Stiles stared at him like he just wasn't getting it. “As annoyingly presumptuous and overprotective that was of both of you, did you ever think of just telling me that? There were so many days when I just needed you to be there for me, as a friend, as my Dominant, and I was alone. Always.” His dad had had a dangerous job, always disappearing in the middle of the night to visit a murder scene or, more likely, a domestic violence call out or missing persons case. He was around guns all the time, and Stiles had spent his entire life being afraid that the next time his dad left the house he wouldn't come back. His mom had died, an illness that medicine couldn't cure and she wouldn't consent to being a werewolf, not that the Bite would have even helped with how far gone she had been. Sure, his dad had remarried and given him a stepmom and stepsister but they'd never been close and it hadn't touched that mile wide space in his heart that loneliness called home. 

“I trusted you'd help me keep that promise. But I would never have been able to. Genim, you may have been considered a child in law but your body was producing all the right chemicals to make you a temptation I was afraid I wouldn't be able refuse. Your dad was too good to me for me to betray him like that,” Derek told him, finally shocking Stiles into silence.

~ ~

“Come on Genim, you've never been that naïve, don't start now,” Lydia said scornfully.

Hurt blossomed in his chest. It had been years since had been intentionally cold towards him and back then it had been deserved. 

“Lydia, you're talking about Peter. Derek and Laura's uncle, the man who took them in after the fire and raised them as his own.”

“You mean the man who survived the fire when everyone else died, don't you? The man who married Scott's mom and most importantly gave you permission to leave Beacon Hills on behalf of the Pack four years ago?” She pointed out.

Stiles' stunned look must have clued her in, for she added, “what? You thought I didn't know? Oh please, you never would have left home if someone hadn't given you permission to do so, and since everybody knows you didn't get it from your Dom, well, Peter's the next best thing, right?”

“It's not some great big conspiracy.”

“But it is!” She stressed.

“Derek could have come after me.”

She stared at him with exasperation and pity. “Is that what you wanted? He was never going to chase you down and bring you back. He didn't want to repeat his and Kate's story, with you as the kid in place of himself. He wanted to give you the freedom he thought you wanted. Idiot. He only came after you now because he was afraid you were in danger.”

“Freedom? Freedom is all I've ever had. He's never tried to claim me in anyway, Lydia. I left because I couldn't bear to be around someone I loved so much when it was so obvious he didn't feel anything in return.”

“Genim!” She snapped her fingers in front of his face. “Stop being such a drama queen and focus on the important thing.”

He rolled his eyes. “The part where you think Peter, Peter freaking Hale, is out to kill us all in order to ensure only his child survives to inherit the Hale Pack. It's not even a good theory, I mean without us all there is no pack for Melissa's kid to inherit. Also, it's Peter Hale.”

“Packs are easy to make, it's the bloodline he wants to ensure he controls. Melissa's child is his own, but any baby that Laura had or I am having would be a threat to his child's right to be alpha. I think he's gone insane, maybe he has been since the fire, but this plan has been in motion for years, Genim, and it's time to stop ignoring the facts and do something before he kills my child and there is no one left to stop him from complete control.”

~ ~

“You shouldn't even be here,” Jackson whispered, sounding wrecked and angry and pained. He couldn't even look Danny in the eyes, and that hurt because after everything they'd already been through together, after everything they had felt for each other, Danny thought he deserved eye contact if Jackson was going to cruelly wish him gone. Then Jackson met his eyes... and finally Danny knew that Jackson was being anything but cruel. “You'd be safe. If Stilinski had never brought you here, you'd be safe.”

Danny took a step closer, hand outstretched. “Then I would never have met you, and believe me when I say that a bit of danger is worth finding you.”

“It's not, it's not worth it. I'm not. I can't be,” he said, shrugging away and trying desperately not to let tears fall down his perfect cheeks.

“Before you I didn't even know how to breathe,” Danny said, knowing full well he sounded like an over-dramatic teenager in a daytime soap opera and not caring a single bit because it felt true. Just a few weeks ago he'd been a confused and faintly bored switch who's biggest problem had been remembering to wash enough clothes for a week on laundry day. He'd traded in that mundane ordinary existence for a vibrant and full life, one with adventure and love in it. He'd take the pain if it meant he got to keep Jackson.

“Now I'm here and you're my oxygen, so don't leave me. Just... be mine. I'll be yours and you be mine and we'll keep each other safe,” he said simply.

Jackson looked torn but so hopeful that it killed Danny. “I don;t know how to be anybody's.”

Danny pulled him close and this time Jackson allowed the contact. “That's stupid. Being mine is easy, you already are. You just have to want me to be yours too.”

“I do, I do want that,” Jackson admitted and Danny felt a wet warmth travel down his neck. Jackson was crying, but that was okay because tears weren't always a bad thing. Sometimes they signified overwhelming joy at the end of loneliness. Sometimes they meant 'I love you, too'.

“Then we'll be together, and we'll help the Pack protect each other until Peter Hale can be brought to justice. Afterwards we'll discuss everything else, okay?” Danny held on tight, relaxing his body into Jackson's and letting their shared body heat comfort him.

“If that's what you want,” Jackson agreed.  
~ ~

Stiles wasn't there for the big show down, but apparently it was harrowing. Peter had kidnapped Lydia, almost killed her until Isaac, Derek, Laura and Boyd had stopped him. They were all devastated to find out the truth, or at least Peter's version of it. Lydia had been right, and Peter had been attempting to control the lineage of the Pack so it was pure Hale, pure Peter. He'd wanted to manipulate them all but had failed when it came to Laura and Derek who were both too strong willed. He even admitted he'd considered killing Laura to influence Derek with grief, but the plan had been too risky.

After that it was obvious the man was insane. He had been willing to destroy what little family he had left in order to create the Pack his brother had always denied him. There was no one that his betrayal didn't touch, and there was no one that he hadn't been willing to manipulate including giving Stiles permission to study away from home in order to weaken Derek. That was when Stiles realised that Derek did love him, probably had all the time. That was when he knew there was a light at the end of the tunnel. A dawn after a long dark night. A home after travelling alone. 

~INTERLUDE (2)~

“Mom?”

Melissa sat silently as she stared at the baby. Her baby. Peter's baby. She knew she should pick it up, after all it was crying (she was crying) but Melissa didn't move a muscle, just continued to gaze at the screaming child as if by inaction the child would cease making that awful noise.

“MOM!” Scott shouted and she jumped.

“Oh, honey, I'm sorry I didn't realise you were visiting,” she smiled wanly in his direction.

“Mom, are you okay?” He asked warily.

“Fine. I'm fine.”

“How is my little sister doing?” He asked, pride slipping into his voice as if by being a big brother he had already done something amazing.

“Who?” She asked blankly, and Scott's look turned to concern.

“My sister, mom. The baby? Are you sure you're okay?”

“I'm... I'm fine, honey. Just tired.”

Scott decided that it was his job to calm the child, and she quieted almost as soon as she was in his arms. He made 'goo goo' faces at the newborn and jiggled her about. “She's so pink and squishy. Have you come up with a name for her yet?”

“A name... No. Peter... he wanted to name her Bethany after his mother. But I can't... not now.”

Not now her husband had gone and murdered half the town. “What do you want to call her?”

“I don't know.”

Scott sat down next to his mom, forcing her to look at the tiny baby in his arms. “Mom, it wasn't your job to know that Peter was a bad man, you know that right? And it certainly isn't the baby's fault that he did bad things.”

Tears strung from Melissa's eyes and the stupidity of rejecting her own daughter out of fear hit her hard. “I know, I know I'm sorry.”

“Shhh. You're just tired. Get some rest, I'll look after my little sister while you sleep.”

She nodded, tears still glistening in her dark eyes as she lay her head down and hugged herself. Scott put the baby down and placed a woven blanket over his mom before taking his sister out of the room with him. It would be okay, his mom just needed some rest. Everything was going to get better. 

Right?

~ ~

It was hard for Derek to watch his big sister hand out the sentencing. With her position of alpha it made her both judge and executioner for the pack. The hardest of choices were hers alone, no one, not even Boyd, could take away the pain of passing judgement from her.

“Laura, are you sure?” Derek asked.

“This is what being an Alpha is, Derek. I've been preparing to make this decision my whole life. Besides, there is no one else. He must be brought to justice for the atrocities he committed, for the pain he caused Melissa, for the impact of his actions, for the murders and for... for killing my baby. This isn't revenge. Death would be too easy if it were. This is necessary, he must be eliminated for the good of the Pack.”

Derek stared at his sister, seeing in her everything that was good in their mother. Laura would have been an amazing parent, and Peter stole that from her. He knew that he could never act solely with the intention of eliminating his uncle without making the man suffer imaginative and excruciating punishments first. Of course, if he ever went through with those acts it would change the man he was, corrupt him and almost definitely cause him to lose that which he loved more than all else; Genim. 

He nodded, stepping back. “I'll be here.” For you was the unspoken addition. 

“I know. You're my brother,” Laura said fondly, understanding perfectly. Taking a deep breath she entered the cage in which Peter had been kept in since the last full moon. Scott had wanted to release Peter and have the wolf pack track him down and kill him, a fitting end for a werewolf, but it carried with it too much risk and with the death toll so high no one had wanted to support an idea that put lives in danger, not just civilian but their own as well. Truthfully no one wanted to be the one to kill Peter, to have his blood on their hands, especially Scott despite what he said. Scott wasn't a cold blooded killer, and there was no way he could look his stepfather in the eye and rip his throat out without destroying himself over it. None of them can. Even Lydia, who after being raped had more reason than anyone to despise Pete Hale, couldn't kill him with a clean conscience. 

~ ~

“This is yours,” Derek said quietly as he handled the soft leather collar.

It was beautiful. Not flashy or plain, but a simple band of expensive brown leather lined with silk that had been stamped with the image of a wolf on a gold plate. There was no 'D' ring for a leash or bondage attachment, and Stiles found that particular detail to be the most important one because it made the collar unusual enough that he knew it had been hand-crafted just for him rather than brought from a store like most were. He took a step closer to his Dom.

“When did you find the time to have it made?” He asked. Ever since he'd returned it had been none stop blood and fear and recriminations. Romance had definitely taken a back-seat to the chaos that had eclipsed their lives.

“When you were seventeen,” was the surprising response.

He frowned in confusion. “But you weren't around then.”

“Just because I wasn't physically near you didn't mean I had forgotten about you, Genim. When I was away I decided to get some extra training. I wanted to be the best Dom for you that I could be. I knew you weren't a masochist like Erica, which was good because I've never liked seeing people in pain. And you weren't a service orientated sub like Isaac, either. I did a little bit of everything, just in case, and when I was ready I came back.”

“But you never claimed me.” 

Derek met his eyes. “You were so young still, and I could see that you weren't sure what you wanted from life. He told me, Peter did, when you asked permission to leave. Your going to college was never part of his plan to get him power, because he told me it was my choice whether or not to allow you to leave. I chose to give you what you'd asked for, and vowed that after four years I'd bring you back no matter what and then we'd give it a go.”

“So the whole thing with Peter was just a convenient excuse?” He asked disbelievingly.

“Nothing about this has been convenient, but I did use it to my advantage yes, and I won't ever apologise for that.”

“I don't want you to.”

“No?”

Stiles smiled. “I'm here, aren't I? Right where I always wanted to be. With you.”

~ ~

“I suppose you'll be leaving now.”

Danny looked up in surprise at Jackson's voice to see the Submissive leaning against the door frame of Lydia's old bedroom. His eyes were glued to the suitcase which Danny was carefully packing, clothes folded and individual items bagged up. He had only ever meant to come and make sure that Stiles was okay, but somehow this journey had turned into so much more than that. He's found a truth he hadn't been looking for, and fallen in love with a person he hadn't known could exist. He certainly didn't regret his choice to follow Stiles home, even if he could have done without the near death experiences.

“Do you want me to stay?” Danny asked bluntly.

Jackson looked pained. “That's not the way this works. I'm not the one who gets to make demands. It's up to you.”

Danny scoffed. “Fine then. I demand an answer.”

Jackson met his eyes, and Danny did his best not to get lost in the look his mate was giving him; all longing and fear and anguish. God, Danny just wanted to hold Jackson tight until all the other man could feel was Danny's body heat, just make Jackson believe that everything could be okay. That Danny could make everything okay. “I just want you. I don't care where or why or how. And I should care, but you're the only thing that my heart wants, and it's made me realise that before you I never wanted anything. So, I guess the question is, do you want me?”

“Only for every second since I saw you,” Danny answered with the biggest smile he had ever warn. Jackson sounded out of breath after his speech, and he still wore this expression like he expected Danny to just leave him. Like everyone he'd ever loved had.

“Then I'll come with you,” Jackson said.

“Are you sure? This is your home.”

“No,” he shook his head. “This is where I was born. You're my home.” He sounded almost surprised at his admission.

Danny closed the gap between them, lips meeting Jackson's in a caress. “We'll be okay.”

“If you say so, then I believe you,” Jackson agreed, tucking his head into the crook of Danny's neck as he breathed in his Dom's scent. Danny listened and he swore he could hear Jackson's heartbeat even over the sound of their breathing. Jackson was right, they were each other's home. Nothing had ever felt so right, and he wondered how he had ever doubted his own Dominance. He wanted nothing more than to take care of Jackson until the end of the universe. Hopefully they'd have fifty or so years in which to do that in.


End file.
